Newbury Christadelphians have just sent us this report:
We are blessed in that Colin and Val Edwards have a number of local contacts in Newbury with support services, Foodbank, and local church activity, and building upon this, we received a specific request for 5 sleeping bags to be delivered to the Salvation Army church hall off the main shopping road in Newbury “for immediate use"
Last Thursday, Colin Edwards and myself transported five bags across town to the Evening meal event, and duly handed these over in the early evening. There were around 40 folk in the hall who had come along for a meal, some warmth and some company and these were from a variety of different backgrounds in terms of need. The bags were going to be used that same evening as part of the homeless shelter run in the Army premises. However, the remaining 15 bags will also be required at the end of this month when the homeless facility is closing down, but it will still be cold of course, so all 15 bags will be taken across town again and left with the volunteers.
This is a photo I took of Colin and Meryl, the lead volunteer, and whilst I took several more, I am not allowed to use them in any publicity for specific reasons. Meryl runs the event every week and there were about 6-7 other volunteers there, cooking food and preparing food. Other than the food prepared at home, the local Waitrose and other supermarkets and baker shops etc provide the foodstuffs and this is then cooked in the Army kitchen and consumed forthwith!
Interestingly, we have just looked at the Soup Kitchen’ s web site and spotted the following on the diary listing;
DONATION
'We had a donation of five sleeping bags from two very nice men from Newbury Christadelphians church. We discussed that the need once the night shelter closes at the end of this month will go up again for sleeping bags and tents so they said they would continue to support us. They were amazed how busy we were.'
